Allahabad: All India Muslim Personal Law Board vice-president Dr Kalbe Sadiq was on a visit to Allahabad recently. He had talks with Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders on Babri Masjid and Gujarat riots in a closed-door meeting. He participated in the talks on the request of National Minority Commission chairman Justice Shamim and NMC member Shamim Kazim. Several Muslim leaders were invited to the talks. However except two, no one came. Only Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and Dr Kalbe Sadiq participated in the talks. Besides them, some imams of the local mosques also took part in the deliberations. Dr Sadiq refused to divulge the details of the talks with VHP leaders. But he said the maulanas remained consistent in their stand. “VHP leaders had no words to answer some of the questions raised by us. Besides Babri Masjid, we talked on different issues. The Gujarat riots also came up in the discussions”, he said.

He does not consider VHP a representative organisation of Hindus. "We talked to them because they are the people who incite communal frenzy. They do not only try to intimidate Muslims in real life situations only, but also adopt the same attitude during discussions, Dr Sadiq added.

When asked why did the Minority Commission not participate in the talks, he said that the people in the Minority Commission were timid. They avoided coming out openly for talks. The talks were organised by the Minority Commission on government’s approval. We did not deviate from our stand even by an inch, but rather the VHP had to listen to some of our views.

On the illegal occupation of Shia waqfs in Lucknow, he said not only Shia Waqfs but a lot of Sunni waqfs were also under the illegal possession. The Shias themselves were responsible for the illegal occupation of their waqfs. Protest meetings organised by Maulana Kalbe Jawad before the Imambaras in Lucknow have attracted government’s attention to this problem.